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Bank of America

To whom it may concern:

I just received the notice of rate increase for my card. Shame on you. This 25.65% APR is usurious in any sense of the word. This is an unabashed attempt to make profit off the economic circumstances of the people to whom you are lending money. Not only are you perpetuating the economic crisis by stealing purchasing power for your unreasonable rates, but you are taking blatant advantage of the bailout funds you just received from the government—funds paid for by the very persons from whom you are squeezing outrageous interest rates!

Instead of reorganizing the company to promote more efficient and responsible lending and banking practices, as the American public which is financing your rescue from failure would expect (and should demand!), you are continuing your state of denial of the measures you must—MUST—take in order for Bank of America to even continue to survive, let alone have the smallest chance of hoping to be competitive again.

This rate increase cannot but be symptomatic of an institutional disregard for the very society your company purports to serve, according to your marketing messages. Utter hypocrisy is the only way to describe the convergence of such abhorrent interest rates and such ostensibly customer-oriented promotion. Instead of building the community which you are milking for your selfish ends, you are directly destroying it by stripping it of its capital. No one can say that Bank of America is working toward our common AMERICAN or global goal of peace and equal opportunity; we may easily say it is working against us.

I now equate your institution with loan-sharking, payday lenders, usury, abuse of power, deception, nondisclosure, and practices that until only recently were ILLEGAL. I regret deeply the day I enmeshed my financial future with this sorry organization. Had I the means to pay off my balance in full and terminate any dealings with Bank of America, I would do so. However, I am trying to finish my legal education so that I can prevent and punish these kinds of unjust practices. Rejecting the rate increase was fortunately an option that I could choose, but I know that there are millions of credit card customers who cannot afford to stop using their credit card at this time of their lives and will spiral further down into the cycle of credit that you are doing nothing to ameliorate, and everything to escalate.

You would do well, for both your employees and your customers, to immediately decrease these rates which you have effected. Though this will do little to change my personal opinion of Bank of America, it will at least provide some targeted, much-needed, real relief to those who simply cannot and, more pertinently, SHOULD NOT pay these rates.

Sincerely,
Sarah J. Miller

Comments

Eric said…
Well stated. Now we have on record a fourth major f***-up by B of A against the Miller clan.

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